Galatians 3:13: why Paul quotes a law about hanged bodies
13Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, since he became a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is anyone who hangs from a tree.”
The verse this page is about.
Short answer
Galatians 3:13 states that Christ bought his people out from under the law’s curse by taking the cursed position himself, and supports it with a line from Deuteronomy about anyone hanging from a tree. The verse declares an exchange of position; it does not spell out how that works.
- Written by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 2 min read
The quotation is deliberately shocking. Paul takes an old law about how to treat the body of an executed man and applies it to the Messiah, which for his first readers was close to unthinkable.
The argument is set inside a practical dispute: communities in Galatia were being pressed to adopt requirements from the law. Paul answers by showing that the law also has a sentencing side, and that this is what Christ removed them from.
Where this verse appears
In the preceding verses Paul builds the problem with two quotations: whoever does not keep everything written stands under a curse, and that the just live by faith. Together they form a dead end for anyone trying to secure their standing by observance.
The law quoted in today’s verse comes from Deuteronomy and concerned the corpse of someone executed and displayed: it could not remain hanging overnight, because the one hanging there was under God’s curse and would defile the land.
What it says
The sentence is structured as an exchange: a redemption happens because someone takes the other’s position. The verb points to purchase, removal at a price — market and manumission vocabulary rather than courtroom language.
What the quotation does is not to prove that Jesus was cursed by God, but to connect the manner of his death to the category the law describes. Paul uses the coincidence of the tree as a bridge between the old sentence and the cross.
On exactly how that exchange works, Christians have used different models for centuries — substitution, victory over the powers, representation. The differences are real, and this page does not choose between them. What the verse asserts, and every reading accepts, is the outcome: those who stood under the sentence no longer do.
What to do with it today
If your religion runs like a spreadsheet — good days, bad days, a balance at month end — this verse dismantles the spreadsheet. It does not say the balance improved. It says the account was closed by someone else.
The practical work is noticing when you start adding again. It shows up in small sentences: I do not deserve to pray today, once I get better I will come back. The text answers that the position has already changed, and that resuming the arithmetic is refusing the redemption.
What the passages say
23his corpse shall not remain on the tree. Instead, he shall be buried on the same day. For he who hangs from a tree has been cursed by God, and you shall not defile your land, which the Lord your God will give to you as a possession.”
The law Paul quotes. Worth reading what it actually regulated: an executed body was not to stay hanging overnight, so the land would not be defiled. That detail is the bridge to the cross.
14This was so that the blessing of Abraham might reach the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, in order that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
The next verse says what the exchange was for: the blessing promised to Abraham reaching the Gentiles, and the promise of the Spirit received through faith. The redemption has a destination, and it is far wider than one individual.
A prayer to carry with you
Lord Jesus, you took the place that was mine. I cannot explain that properly, but I receive it. Break me of the habit of trying to pay what you have already paid. Amen.